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Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was one of the most divisive wars in the history of the United States. The war divided generations, families, and classes. All told, the United States lost over 58,000 men and women in a fruitless struggle to halt the spread of Vietnamese nationalism, while spending anywhere from $112 to $155 billion to defeat North Vietnam. That total increases when widows benefits, pensions, and other indirect costs of the war are included. If we add those indirect costs the actual cost reaches a staggering $925 billion!

The Second Vietnamese War has received very little attention in most history classes on both the secondary and post-secondary levels. Often there is not enough time at the end of the semester to do justice to this pivotal period in U.S. and world history, which drove one president from office and contributed to the fall of another. The public often fails to realize that this war occurred at a time of great change during the 1960s, not only in the United States, but also worldwide. Those changes involved the quest for civil and political rights for African Americans, the development of a student protest movement, the rise of feminism, and the counterculture, highlighted by the birth of the Age of Aquarius as seen by the hippies in the East Village and Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco.

America's longest war was fought within this milieu. It is the purpose of this course to explain and to outline the conflict, and to highlight the diplomatic, military, political, and social aspects of the war. Even more disturbing is that United States has embarked on another unpopular military action, this time not in Southeast Asia, but the Middle East. Are the two wars similar as some contend? If so, how? If not, why? What were the lessons, if any, of Vietnam? Those and many other engaging questions will be reviewed during the course of the semester. To do that, students are expected to read the assigned readings, discuss the materials in the chat room and answer the questions posted on the discussion board.

Select Bibliography on the Vietnam War

John S. Bowman. The World Almanac of The Vietnam War. New York: Bison, 1985.